The latest flagship smartphones from Samsung are finally here with impressive new specs and plenty of upgrades from last year. The Galaxy S20 Ultra is making headlines with its huge display and revolutionary camera setup. This is the phone with insane specs on paper and the only thing that’s perhaps more eye-catching is the crazy $1,400 starting price.
Pros and Cons
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus |
| Impressive battery life | Great rear camera performance |
| 5000 mAh battery | Smaller and noticeably lighter |
| 45W Fast charging | Outstanding battery life |
| Expandable storage | No headphone jack |
| Quite heavy and thick | 25W wired charging |
Key Specification
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Released | 2020, February | 2020, February |
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 990 | Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 990 |
| Display Size | 6.7 inches | 6.9 inches |
| Memory | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Camera | 108MP + 48MP + 12MP | 64MP + 12MP+ 12MP |
| Fingerprint Sensor Position | On-screen | On-screen |
The S20 plus is missing a couple of defining features of the ultra. But as we’ll see in this article it’s might actually benefit from this in more ways than just saving money. And also be making reference to the smaller S20 which for the most part is just a smaller S20 plus. But its compact form factor and cheaper starting price make it a compelling alternative in a sea of increasingly large smartphones. In this review, we’ll be comparing all of the differences in specs and features to see not only which of these phones offers the best value for money. But also answering the question which of these phones is actually best let’s take a look.
Design
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Dimensions | 166.9 x 76 x 8.8 mm | 161.9 x 73.7 x 7.8 mm |
| Weight | 220 grams | 186 grams |
| Screen Resolution | 1440 x 3200 pixels | 1440 x 3200 pixels |
| Color | Cosmic Grey, Cosmic Black | Cosmic Black, Cosmic Gray, Cloud Blue |
| Display Type | Dynamic AMOLED | Dynamic AMOLED |
| Build Material | Gorilla Glass | Gorilla Glass |
The designs are mostly familiar we still have a glass front and rear panels aluminium frames and an IP 68 water resistance. These are the cosmic black versions. On the top of the phone’s house the hybrid SIM card trays allowing you to expand the phone storage by up to a terabyte. The bottom features the familiar speaker grille and USB C charging port but the more notable change here is the removal of the headphone jack. Now we’ll admit that we almost never need to use this ourselves. There are now so many great wireless options out there for headphones. That we don’t really miss it but we absolutely stand by anyone who’s disappointed that the headphone jack is now gone.
This year the power and volume buttons are all on the right-hand side and the big speak button is now integrated into the power button. Fortunately, these are placed in a much more reachable position this year despite the increase in the phone sizes make no mistake. These are big phones significantly bigger than the regular S20 and the ultra feels especially large and heavy in the hand.
Performance
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Processor | Octa core 2.73 GHz | Octa core 2.73 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G77 MP11 | Mali-G77 MP11 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Internal storage | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage expansion | Up to 1 TB | Up to 1 TB |
| OS | Android v10 (Q) | Android v10 (Q) |
Camera
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Rear | 108 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide) 48 MP, f/3.5, 103mm (telephoto) 12 MP f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide) | 64 MP, f/2.0, 29mm (telephoto) 12 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide) 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm(ultrawude) |
| Front | 40 MP | 10 MP |
| Video recording | 3840×2160 @ 30 fps, 1920×1080 @ 30 fps | 3840×2160 @ 30 fps, 1920×1080 @ 30 fps |
Cameras are ultimately produced mixed results the cameras have been completely overhauled. From last year with both phones offering a quad-camera setup but the specs and the resulting performance is quite different between the S20 Plus and Ultra models.
Images look fantastic and start to rival even the best on the market. We generally found that the Ultra had more muted or natural-looking colors. Whilst the plus had more vibrant but less realistic colors the plus also typically produced sharper images than the Ultra.
The main sensors are twice as large in the S20 plus as the S10 and almost three times as large with the Ultra. So night mode is much better as a result. We expected the S20 ultra to be superior but there really wasn’t much to separate the two phones at all. There are times when the regular photo mode is actually better a night mode can sometimes over the process and make the images seem a little cartoonish the pixel affords night sight is widely regarded as being the best night mode and this image is more realistic and true to life.
Multimedia
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Headphone jack | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | Yes |
| Audio Features | Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus | Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus |
| FM Radio | No | No |
Both of the phones have a headphone jack with USB type C. Both contains loudspeaker with a great voice. But the voice from S20 Ultra is a bit more satisfying and good to listen to. As the sound from S20 is quite more loud which makes the voice weird and also you might feel unpleasant to listen to it. Audio features for gaming, watching a movie and other activities work best in both the phones. Dolby atoms, Dolby digital, Dolby digital plus are included in both of them and you can use them as per you need them and however you want to. None of them contains a radio though. It’s quite a drawback for other people who like to listen to random songs from FM radio.
Battery Life
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus | |
| Capacity | 5000 mAh | 4500 mAh |
| Type | Li-ion | Li-ion |
| Quick Charging | Yes | Yes |
| Wireless Charging | Yes | Yes |
| User Replaceable | No | No |
Both phones can be fast-charged from not to fall in just over an hour with the included 25-watt charges. The Ultra can also be charged at 45 watts but Samsung wants you to pay extra for that privilege. We noticed that even with the included charges the old charged even faster than the S20 plus with its larger 5,000 milliamp-hour battery. That’s pretty impressive just as we saw with last year’s models we have both fast wireless charging and also wireless power share which lets you charge up other devices by placing them on the back of the phones.
Connectivity
|  | Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 Plus |
| SIM | Dual SIM, GSM+GSM | Dual SIM, GSM+GSM |
| Network Support | 4G , 3G, 2G | 4G , 3G, 2G |
| Bluetooth | v5.0 | v5.0 |
| Wifi | Wi-Fi 802.11, a/ac/ax/b/n/n 5GHz, MIMO | Wi-Fi 802.11, a/ac/ax/b/g/n/n 5GHz |
| GPS | Yes with A-GPS, Glonass | Yes with A-GPS, Glonass |
| Sensors | Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope | Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope |
One of the biggest new features Samsung are promoting is 5G and all S20’s are able to support it but this comes with some important caveats. First of all the regular S20 only supports low to mid-band 5G which offers speeds only slightly above the current 4G on a good day. The Plus and Ultra models also support millimetre wave which is the band that offers the crazy download speeds that have given 5G all of the surrounding hype.
Which is better!
The S20 plus starts at $1,200 and the ultra at 1400 with the regular 20 droppings in just below the thousand dollar mark for us. The S20 ultra is a difficult phone to recommend a $1,400 smartphone shouldn’t be shipped with as many camera bugs.
The camera is really the only thing letting it down and the rest of the phone is fantastic. Let’s not forget how great the battery life and displays are. But there’s a reason that most of Samsung’s marketing most of this video is dedicated to the camera.
For those who can don’t care about price, the S20 Ultra has a clear advantage when it comes to camera zoom into the bigger display. Battery life might be tempting but given all of the camera issues the Plus model emerges not only is a better value device but a better phone overall.
